O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven years; and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself. Ere I would say, I would drown myself for the love of a guinea- hen; I would change my humanity with a baboon.
RODERIGO: What should I do? I confess it is my shame to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue to amend it.
IAGO: Virtue! a fig! ’tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions: but we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect or scion.
RODERIGO: It cannot be.
IAGO: It is merely a lust of the blood and a permission of the will. Come, be a man. Drown thyself! Drown cats and blind puppies. I have professed me thy friend and I confess me knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable toughness; I could never better stead thee than now. (1.3.355-385)
I found, that in this particular passage Iago reveals his personal philosophy about love, ego, women and morals. Even though his way of thinking is constricted in an unsentimental and totally cynical manner, his words ensure a great meaning and marvelously resonating with today’s society.
Lets look at the first piece of information that Iago reveals between lines 355 and 360 . After Roderigo threatens to kill himself, claiming that humans have a “prescription to die”(1.3.350), if their grief becomes too excessive, Iago replies crossly “O villainous! I have looked upon the world for four times seven and since I could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an injury, I never found man that knew how to love himself.”(1.3.355) Iago cannot understand Rodrigo’s affection to Desdemona; it is nonsense for him. Why someone chooses to love somebody, so foolishly, so unrequited that is becomes destructive for one’s ego. Why not to love yourself? Iago choses egoism instead of love and turns it into the whole new philosophy of “Iagoism”. He puts himself in Roderigo’s position:” Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea hen I would change my humanity with a baboon. “ (Ibid) This line suggests that Iago scorns the very idea of loving a woman, for him a woman like Desdemona is nothing more than useless farmyard poultry. And he equates the opposite sex and physical love with bestial, implying that the only brainless baboon would be able to love women.
Modest Roderigo declares that he is powerless to change his nature (“virtue”) [1.3.360], implies that our behavior is something we have no control over. Some higher supernatural powers control what we can or cannot do. A man is too insignificant and humble to govern his fate. Iago strikes into him again: “Virtue? A fig! ‘Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”(1.3.360) Iago extends this elaborate similitude to articulate a very modern view of human behavior. He argues that we are what we choose to make ourselves, a conscious choice made by our wills. “So what if we will plant nettles or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness or manured with industry, why the power and corrigible authority of lies in our wills.” (ibid) Iago’s allegory is interesting: whether to cultivate just one kind of plant, one type of herbs, or to do as many different kinds of plants as possible, depends on human choice. The difference between people, just as the difference between gardens, some infertile and idle, some plentiful and rich – depends on one’s wills. This ideology is ongoing in modern world and very extraordinary for Iago’s times, since it denies fatalistic and religion views, it gives the power of alteration of fate and nature to a man, makes him steering of his destiny; it opens up the room for self-development and knowledge and hefts the intelligence over the superstitions.
Iago understands that the idea of a balance in our lives between strong impulses, “motions”(1.3.370), that lead to self-destructive behavior and a kind of control mechanism in the form of what he calls “reason.”(mind)(Ibid)” If the (balance) of our lives had not one scale of reason to poise another of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our natures would conduct us to most preposterous conclusions .But we have reason to cool our raging motions, our carnal stings,(our) unbitted lusts- whereof I take this that you call love to be a sect, or scion”.(1.3.370)
He puts the “reasons” on the first place and comprehends the love as a weakness of will, simply “a sect or scion” of one of those impulses of one’s “baseness”, one’s “carnal stings”, one’s “unbitted lusts“. The language of Iago is no poetic, compare to Othello’s for instance, he use very strong, yet aggressive allegories when he is describing such a sublime feelings like love. The words “unbitted lust” – untamed carnality, “sect or scion” – an offshoot of the lust – are not the usual renaissance glorification of love. In Iago’s interpretation love is nothing but an animal instinct, the “reflexive response to an itch”. “ It is merely a lust of the blood and permission of the will. Come, be a man ! Drown thyself? Drown cats and blinds puppies”(1.3.380) What an interesting alternative Iago is offering to languishing for love! For him love is meaningless and any longings of soul are nothing but weak will power. In Iago’s world is only jealousy and hater exists.
This passage is unique, since it is uncover Iago’s philosophy about self-development of a man, which is surprisingly resonating with modern world. Man is the master of his virtue, a gardener of his own mental state. It is remarkable, that these thoughts come to Shakespeare’s mind during the period of rage religious and fatalistic social views.
